Wikipedia:Update/2/General style guidelines, January 2010 to June 2010


 * March 2010

Note: A series of proposals have been made to merge WP:Avoid neologisms, WP:Avoid peacock terms, WP:Avoid weasel words, WP:Embedded list, WP:Explain jargon, WP:Layout, WP:Lead section and WP:Technical terms and definitions into other pages. Also see discussion at WT:MOS.


 * Citing sources
 * In the introduction, changed: "... unsourced material about living persons must be removed immediately. A source is also required when uploading an image." to: "... unsourced contentious or negative material about living persons must be removed immediately. When an image is uploaded, the uploader must state where the image came from, and its copyright status. If the image comes from an online site, a link to the source page is normally provided."
 * In WP:CITE, added: "... though note that templates should not be added without consensus to an article that already uses a consistent referencing style."
 * Moved up and expanded the WP:CITE subsection
 * Part of WP:CITE was moved into a new subsection: WP:CITE


 * External links
 * In WP:EL, changed: "... illegal content" to: "... content that is illegal to access in the state of Florida"
 * New section: WP:EL


 * Layout
 * In WP:Layout, added: [Portal] "and Wikipedia-Books" [links are usually placed in this section.]


 * Manual of Style
 * Text added to WP:MOS; previously there was no text in the top section, only in the subsections
 * In WP:MOS, added: "This section contains a summary of the policy governing the titles of Wikipedia's articles."
 * In WP:MOS, added: "To prevent apostrophes from being misinterpreted as Wiki markup, use the templates ', `, and 's, or use  tags."
 * In WP:MOS, added: "Use non-breaking spaces before en dashes."
 * In WP:MOS, changed: [ imperial units for some measurements such as road distances and] "draught beer" to: "personal heights and weights"
 * Removed subsection: WP:MOS
 * In WP:MOS, removed: "This avoids articles being written in a variety that is inappropriate for the great majority of its readers."
 * In WP:MOS, changed: "If an article has evolved using predominantly one variety, the whole article should conform to that variety, ..." to: "When an article has evolved sufficiently for it to be clear which variety it employs, the whole article should continue to conform to that variety, ..."
 * In WP:MOS, changed: "Images should be inside the section they belong to ..." to: "Images should be inside the major section containing the content to which they relate (within the section defined by the most recent level 2 heading)". The instructions on alt text were shortened to: "Alt text takes the place of an image for text-only readers, including those using screen readers. Images should have an alt attribute added to the alt parameter. See WP:ALT for more information."
 * In WP:MOS, removed: "Do not use replacements for he or she, such as zie and hir, or any other artificial gender-neutral pronouns."
 * Removed section: WP:MOS


 * Manual of Style (dates and numbers)
 * In WP:MOSNUM, removed: "The form 1996–present should be avoided in the main text of articles, though it may be used in infoboxes, crowded templates or lists, with the caveat that they may need to be examined by editors more frequently to see if they need to be updated; it is helpful to other editors to add an HTML comment immediately after such constructions, giving the as-of date, e.g.: . The form since 1996 should be used in favor of 1996–present in normal article text."
 * In WP:MOSNUM, added: "Articles concerning Commonwealth countries in Africa, Asia and Australasia generally put metric units first."


 * Accessibility
 * Removed section: WP:ACCESS


 * Citing sources
 * In WP:CITE, changed: [Any material challenged or likely to be challenged requires an inline citation, as does] "biographical" [material about a living person;] to: "contentious"
 * New subsections: WP:CITE and WP:CITE


 * External links
 * In WP:EL, added: "External links as entries in stand-alone lists. List entries should always have non-redirect articles on Wikipedia or a reasonable expectation that such an article is forthcoming, and thus be internally-linked only."


 * Layout
 * In WP:Layout, changed: [Contents: A bulleted list, usually alphabetized, of a reasonable number of recommended publications that] "do not appear elsewhere in the article and were not used to verify article content." to: "will guide the reader to the more important published sources. The items may be annotated to provide additional information not in the title."


 * Lead section
 * In WP:LEAD, removed: "Sometimes, information about the article format is given in the page title. For example, “List of …” or “Comparison of …”. In such cases, only the subject itself should be boldface. For example, in Outline of Africa, the first sentence should describe Africa, and present only the word “Africa” in bold. The article is not about outlines of Africa, it is presenting information about Africa in outline form."


 * Manual of Style
 * In WP:MOS, added: [Generally, conversions to and from metric units and US or imperial units should be provided, except:] "where units are part of the topic, such as knots in naval articles, and only the first use of a unit needs conversion and linking;"
 * In WP:MOS, replaced the previous text with: "Whether to use the passive voice (this was done) or the active (he did this) depends entirely on the context, and is left to the discretion of editors."
 * In WP:MOS, removed: "This guideline should not be used to claim national ownership of certain articles; see WP:OWN."
 * In WP:MOS, removed: "Avoid the use of certain adjectives as nouns: for example, use black people rather than blacks, gay people rather than gays, disabled people rather than the disabled."
 * In WP:MOS, there have been many changes since January.
 * Renamed WP:MOS to WP:MOS, and added: "... or to consolidate information already covered in prose."


 * Manual of Style (dates and numbers)
 * In WP:MOSNUM, added: [spell out the first instance of each unit in an article ...] "except for unit names which are hardly ever spelled out even in publications for general audiences (e.g. the degree Celsius)."


 * When to use tables
 * Extensive changes


 * Words to avoid
 * WP:AVOID was shortened.
 * New subsection: WP:AVOID


 * Accessibility
 * Minor changes to WP:ACCESS


 * Citing sources
 * Significant changes throughout since December


 * External links
 * In WP:EL, removed: [Sites that contain neutral and accurate material that] "is relevant to an encyclopedic understanding of the subject and" [cannot be integrated into the Wikipedia article due to copyright issues, amount of detail (such as professional athlete statistics, movie or television credits, interview transcripts, or online textbooks), or other reasons.]
 * In WP:EL, changed: [On articles with multiple points of view,] "the number of links dedicated to one point of view should not overwhelm the number dedicated to other equal points of view, nor give undue weight to minority views." to: "avoid providing links too great in number or weight to one point of view, or that give undue weight to minority views."


 * Layout
 * Renamed WP:Layout to WP:Layout, and added: "however, "Bibliography" is discouraged because it is not clear that it is limited to the works of the subject of the article."
 * In WP:Layout, removed: "Please refrain from adding links to pages that do not yet exist (red links)." Changed: "A brief annotation may be necessary when the" [link's relevance is not immediately apparent, when the meaning of the term may not be generally known, or when the term is ambiguous.] to: "Editors should provide a brief annotation when a ..."  Added: "Title: The most frequent title for this section is "See also"."
 * In WP:Layout, added: "How to best organize and title the results when the footnotes are separate from the works cited proper is mostly unresolved."


 * Linking
 * In WP:Linking, added: "long sortable" [tables, in which each row should be able to stand on its own.] "(Rows which are near the top of the table when it is sorted according to one column can be far from it when it is sorted according to another one.)"
 * In WP:Linking, added: "As noted above, when doing this, add a hidden comment to the target section such as  so that someone changing the title of that section can fix the incoming links. (Alternatively, use  in case of a large number of links to the section.)"
 * In WP:Linking, changed: "when the webpage contains key or authoritative information found on no English-language site" to: "when the webpage contains information found on no English-language site of comparable quality". Added: "If the language is one that most readers could not be expected to recognize, or is for some other reason unclear from the name of the publication or the book/article/page title, consider" [indicating what language the site is in.]


 * Manual of Style
 * Extensive rewording and other changes since December


 * Manual of Style (dates and numbers)
 * In the introduction, information on ArbCom rulings was changed and expanded
 * In WP:MOSNUM, added: [miles per hour for] "road" [speeds]. Added: "With imperial units which are not also US customary units, double conversions can be useful: The song's second verse reveals that Rosie weighs 19 st."
 * In WP:MOSNUM, added: "When called on to use a plural with the euro, use the standard English plurals and not the "legislative" plurals (ten euros and fifty cents, not ten euro and fifty cent). In adjectival use, no plural form is generally used, but rather a hyphenated form: (a two-euro pen, a ten-dollar meal, a ten-cent cigar)."
 * In WP:MOSNUM, changed: [the form 1996–present ...] "is preferred in infoboxes and other crowded templates or lists" to: "may be used in infoboxes, crowded templates or lists"


 * Profanity
 * In WP:Profanity, removed: "censorship preserved"


 * When to use tables
 * Significant changes throughout since December


 * Words to avoid
 * New section: WP:AVOID


 * General style guidelines, July 2009 to December 2009
 * General style guidelines, January 2009 to June 2009
 * General style guidelines, July 2008 to December 2008